Brutus Beefcake

Edward Harrison Leslie (born April 21, 1957) is an American retired professional wrestler, best known for his work in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) under the ring name Brutus "the Barber" Beefcake.

He later worked for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) under a wide variety of names.

Leslie held nine titles throughout his career, and is a former WWF World Tag Team Champion with Greg Valentine.

Leslie began his career at the side of Terry Bollea in 1977.

At the time, the two were billed as brothers.

Leslie was Ed Boulder when Bollea wrestled as "Terry Boulder", and Dizzy Hogan when Bollea became "Hulk Hogan".

In later years this created confusion among fans, many of whom actually believed that Leslie and Bollea were real life brothers.

Leslie briefly wrestled in Bill Watts' Mid-South territory and in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1980.

Leslie rejoined the WWF as a heel named Brutus Beefcake in late 1984.

Introduced in a vignette that portrayed him as a male stripper, Beefcake was a vain character who dressed in outlandish outfits.

Beefcake made his WWF debut on the August 11 episode of Championship Wrestling, by appearing at ringside during a match between Ivan Putski and Ron Shaw.

Two weeks later, on the August 25 episode of Championship Wrestling, Beefcake wrestled his first match in the WWF by defeating Jose Luis Rivera.

After beating enhancement talents during the first weeks of his career, Leslie was joined by "Luscious" Johnny Valiant as his manager on the October 13 episode of Championship Wrestling.

As a singles wrestler, Beefcake's first major rivalry began against the WWF Champion Hulk Hogan, whom Beefcake wrestled for the title on a number of occasions.

Hogan sought revenge on Beefcake after he and Valiant injured Hogan's protégé, Hillbilly Jim at a show in San Diego on February 25, 1985, where Jim had appeared in Hogan's corner for a match between Hogan and Beefcake.

During this time, Beefcake also feuded with David Sammartino whom he fought to a double disqualification at the inaugural WrestleMania at Madison Square Garden.

In the summer of 1985, Beefcake began teaming with Greg "The Hammer" Valentine.

They became known as The Dream Team.

They soon began challenging The U.S. Express (Mike Rotundo and Barry Windham) for the WWF Tag Team Championship.

Initially, the U.S. Express successfully met these challenges but, on August 24 in the Philadelphia Spectrum, Dream Team defeated US Express to win the Tag Team Championship.

They won the titles after Beefcake rubbed Valiant's lit cigar into Windham's eye.

The title change aired live on the local PRISM network, and on the September 7 episode of Championship Wrestling via tape delay.

They defended the belts for eight months, primarily against The American Express (Dan Spivey and Mike Rotunda), Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff, The Hillbillies (Uncle Elmer and Hillbilly Jim), and The British Bulldogs (Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith).

At WrestleMania 2, in Rosemont, Illinois, The Dream Team lost the title to The British Bulldogs.

They were unsuccessful in rematches for the title, especially in a two out of three falls match at Saturday Night's Main Event VII.

Dream Team soon dropped to mid-card status.

The Dream Team broke up at WrestleMania III.

After defeating The Rougeau Brothers at the pay-per-view, the team had an argument and Beefcake was left in the ring while Valentine and Valiant left with Dino Bravo.

This provided the impetus for Beefcake to turn face.

In the immediate next match on the show, Beefcake helped Roddy Piper to defeat Adrian Adonis, reviving Piper after Adonis had rendered him unconscious.

Per match stipulations, Adonis would have his head shaved.

Beefcake undertook this task and earned the nickname "The Barber".

Thereafter, Beefcake started bringing garden shears (with the handles taped to resemble barber poles) to the ring, and using a sleeper hold (hitherto a specialty of both Piper and Adonis, used heavily by both in their WrestleMania III match) as his finishing move.

After a match, he would strut around the ring, "snipping" his fingers like scissors to indicate he was about to cut his defeated opponent's hair.

As he did (using either his shears or an electric razor) he would throw handfuls of hair into the air for the amusement of his fans.

After coming out on top of a feud with former partner Valentine and ex-manager Valiant, Beefcake feuded with Intercontinental Champion The Honky Tonk Man.

Beefcake vowed to not only win the title, but put Honky to sleep and cut his duck's tail.

He also competed for major singles titles on pay-per-view and television, headlining the Starrcade 1994, in a match against then-WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan.

In a 2000 shoot interview, he recalled his first match was a tag match with Ron Slinker, against Ox Baker and Eric the Red.

Leslie was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2019 by Hogan.